Are planks fun too?

[memosteve]

Originally Posted by JasonJ

Yeah, I have seen some real elitist bs from the giant scale crowd. Of course there are nice guys too but they are overshadowed by the snobs. Another local club had a funfly a few years back and they have a lot of IMac guys and these clowns wouldn't even talk to you if you asked them a question. They literally would turn away. So no, it isn't jealousy, I could buy one right now if I wanted to. It's the elitist bs demonstrated by so many that it turned me off to the whole regimen.

Sorry you had that experience!

My experience, for the most part, has been the opposite with the IMAC crew here in the PNW...awesome group of guys who spend just as much time interacting w/the public, and helping out new pilots as they do on their own stuff.

The very first event I attended, nobody knew me from Adam and I really had no clue about how IMAC worked (knew the routine from learning online, but was clueless about setup and how the contest was run). W/in 5 minutes of being there, the NW division Sportsman champion took me under his wing and helped me out the whole day, even neglecting working on his own planes...it's been pretty much the same experience w/the IMAC guys around here since then.

When I've experienced an IMAC guy being "short", I've found that it has nothing to do with being rude or "elitist", rather they are just hyper-focused on their plane and competing (there's a lot going on when you're getting ready to fly a competitive routine).
The guys who are genuine snobs/elitist are just that way no matter what hobby their involved with and they are usually the worst pilots at an event anyways.

Now, I have experienced more of what you're talking about with true scale guys (the guys who build scale planes, sport, civilian, military, whatever, true to scale copying actual aircraft). This particular crowd does seem to be a bit snobby, which is funny considering most of them are good builders but can't fly at all...most of the GS crashing I see comes from this crowd. They also are far more into building/static display then actual flying.

I have found that your own attitude (not yours in particular...just talking in general) plays a lot into how others treat you when you go to a fun fly, competition, club, etc.. If you approach people the wrong way, and or at the wrong time, you may put the person on the defensive, which can come across as rude or even "elitist."

I've found just the same thing when it comes to helis as well...the vehicle being flown doesn't change the attitude of the person flying it!

Have you been to a big heli fun fly? you don't think there's lots of attitude/elitism at those events? I got news for ya...it's exactly the same as a plank event!

When I was new in this hobby I attended what was probably the biggest event in the PNW at the time (Brooks)...I attended as a spectator and not as a pilot. With the exception of a couple people, almost NOBODY would give me the time of day when asking about helis etc.. They all had their helis out on display like proud papa's, but they would just ignore you, or act like your about to steal their pride and joy, when you approached their tables!

Coincidentally, the scale heli guys at this event had the worse attitudes! Go figure!

[rotormonkey]

I started with helis, and after the second year I got a cheap High wing nitro sport plane to mess with. I had it for about a week before selling it. With a grand total of 3 flights. It was no fun.

Then I got a 60 size glow Matt Chapman Cap 580. Also stupid. I had little fun with it.

Then I got a profile foamie. That was fun, but due to wind I didn't get to fly often, but it was entertaining to pull it out when it was calm and hover around.

Last summer I got an EG Aircraft 88" 30% Slick 540. Now THAT was fun. With the sheer size of it, and it's capability it got the heart going. Low hovering torque rolling, and all that stuff still really gets the heart going. I enjoyed it.

Now I've found that I can just BARELY get a EF 35% 110" Yak in the Mazda 3, so I got one of those too. I'm sure I'm going to have a blast with it.

I gotta say my experience with the GS guys hasn't been anything like JasonJ's. They're all stand up guys in my area that have gone way out of their way to help me out (and others for that matter) at every opportunity. I don't find them snotty or judgemental. They happily share the flight line with us heli guys, and it was them that encouraged me to try airplanes again. I'm glad they did.

4 years in without really having fun with planks previously, I now fly both helis and airplanes both regularly and have a blast doing it.

One thing that's nice is once you've got your head wrapped around helis, planks are a walk in the park. The guys were really impressed at how quick I picked 'em up. I attribute it entirely to the heli experience. It doesn't work the other way 'round. Plankers can't fly helis

Either way, pick one up, give it a whirl and make your own judgement OP. Don't limit yourself to helis alone. They're my primary interest too (still are), but there's other stuff out there that can be a lot of fun.

[KC36330]

I love flying my planks, of course most of mine burn kerosene.

the elitist attitudes mentioned above i've seen in all sides of the hobby and if i had a dollar for every time i heard it used in reference to turbine fliers i could buy me a new jet!!! i find it the furthest from the truth at the many turbine events i've attended but to be honest though, in my own experience it's a select few in EVERY group that have their own attitudes regardless of what you fly that cast a bad shadow over the group.

[burntclutch]

At age 9 , I have build my 1 st controll line plane , from there I progrest to scale controll line , then at about 12 yrs of age my 1 st 2 ch plane ( Back in those day's there where no "Mono Cout" , all - " papper and "dope"!!! , C.A. whas a word in far of lands - at the price of gold. The name R.T.F did not exist , it was all from plans and stock balsa
Today , 38 yrs forward , look at what we have !!!!
As far as I am concerned , the dissipline went as follow
1.Gliders ( free flight)
2. Powerd Earoplanes (Free flight & controll line )
3. R.c planes & gliders ( Diezel ... Nitro ...Electric)
4.R.c Rottor grafft ( Nitro ... Electric)
5. Turbine"s & Jets

So , I am answering the question with a statment........
"Life is not about the destanation , it is about the journey"

[twistedgrim]

I am a plank flyer who flies helis also. I think that is a good way to say it. I fly Pattern Precision as well as mostly 3D. Have Almost all 3DHS stuff and am actually a Team Pilot. Funny thing is about half the 3DHS Team pilots fly helis too. Have stuff anywhere from little foamies to 35% Gas Monsters. Both the helis and Planes are fun to fly and there definitely is a wind difference in flying larger helis vs larger planes in 20MPH + winds, although I will fly both my Giantscale and 500+ Helis in that.

The comment about GS plank fliers wanting them to crash etc is something I would almost agree on if they are being complete dicks etc. There is ALOT of egos in GS planes, but everyone needs to remember it happens with the heli crowd as well. People that fly the top of the pack awesome 700's with crazy setups and fly crack/smack in your face think they are invincible as well. They can be as much of an ass as anyone at the flying field. Just think about that crowd of guys that only flies war-birds at the field and doesn't want helis / 3D / Pattern or anything different than their own. Just think about that the next time you are at the field and commenting on people stuff be it planks or helis of any kind.


Far as the planks being fun. You can get your own enjoyment out of the hobby. You can do scale helis or scale planes, its really whatever shoots your fancy. If you really enjoy learning new maneuvers with helis then it can be just as fun doing aerobatics with planes as well. A great place to start is to get an inexpensive EPP Foam plane that if it crashes you can pick up and fly again. My personal Favorite at the moment is the 3DHS 38" Slick as its big enough and still simple/small enough to mess around and not break stuff. Another good plane to try is any of the twisted hobbies stuff all good for smaller light even indoor stuff. If you want something bigger 3DHS just came out with full fuse carbon/ply/EPP planes that fly similar to balsa planes but bounce if you have an oops.


All in all have fun with the hobby and try not to fart on someone else s fun if they enjoy something different. Just watch the Arseholes be it heli or plank fliers.

[Jermo]

If you can fly an RC helicopter you can fly a plane but not the other way around. Planes can be fun in their own way but doesn't give me the thrill of my Pantera!

[Flying_Amp]

I fly both (planks mainly EPP 3D stuff) and 450 heli's, I dont know if anyone else had noticed but i feel i can do more 3D stuff with the planks since getting back into Heli's

[Mikey D]

There are a few of us that also do this. If you like racing that is!

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=_5Dypzi9Lx4

Mikey D

[KC36330]

Originally Posted by Jermo

If you can fly an RC helicopter you can fly a plane..........

That's some of that elitist attitude showing its head in the heli crowd!!

I've got several planks that even some of the best heli fliers couldnt get airborne and back safely. Not every plank flies like a foam trainer.

On the other hand, if you can fly one CP heli you can pretty much fly every heli.

[deca]

I'd say if you can handle a heli you can handle any 3D plank. When you get into scale stuff that isn't gratuitously overpowered you could get into trouble not being familiar with how fixed wing flies.

[Luigi_tuga]

Planes are very fun too.
3 months after starting with rc helis, i've built a excelent multiplex funcub, that i filled after 2 months with 120 leds for night flying, which is super super funny and cool. It died in the middle of a river, lost orientation flying too far with heavy winds
It had a very strong motor, so didn't need much runway, only for landing.
Some months ago i got bit by the excellent forums feedback about the Parkzone strykerQ and bought one, and it is very versatile, stable, fast and fun. This is the kind of plane that goes very well with a heli fleet, because i can fly it with a lot of wind, when flying with a heli isn't that funny or productive

[rotormonkey]

I don't think it's elitist at all to say if you can fly a heli you can fly a plane. He didn't say if you can fly any heli you can go fly a turbine jet. Though it is a blanket statement, and you do have a point about some airframes not behaving nicely, etc

It is my experience, and that of many others that the skills you develop flying a helicopter translate over to fixed wing very well. If you hand the radio to a competent helicopter guy that's never flown an airplane he'll likely bring it back in one piece (with most airframes, there are obviously exceptions). Hand an airplane guy the radio for a helicopter, and I bet the outcome wouldn't be as positive.

It's not egotistical, the learning curve for flying a helicopter IS steeper because they can move in any direction rather than just straight forward. You HAVE to learn how to hover a helicopter - you don't need to hover an airplane. You also have to get intimately familiar with the rudder stick with a heli. You don't with an airplane.

[aclysma]

I think it's very easy to accept that doing basic stuff with a helicopter is harder than doing basic stuff with an airplane. I can certainly tell you what my experience was: fly around in a circle for about 20 minutes and some land/takeoff practice and I was good to go with my easy star. It took much longer just to hover a heli.. several packs a day for a week. And then you can only do tail in, no circuits.

But I would agree that flying at an extremely high level of skill is hard, regardless of what is being flown.

If I had a friend who wanted to learn RC aircraft, I would tend to direct him towards planes at first and plant the seed for helis later. Getting an easystar into the air and repairing it is much easier than a blade 400.

[lazor 22]

I had a 3DHS 47" Extra 300 SHP for a bit and I liked it, was pretty fun to fly and I didn't get bored with it. But there was nothing about it that made me "want" to go fly it. I'd only fly it when I didn't have any batteries for my heli. Then I switched clubs and the new one was heli only so it sat for 6 months or so and I finally sold it and used the money to get a better radio.

[tkranz]

Originally Posted by Luigi_tuga

Planes are very fun too.
3 months after starting with rc helis, i've built a excelent multiplex funcub, that i filled after 2 months with 120 leds for night flying, which is super super funny and cool. It died in the middle of a river, lost orientation flying too far with heavy winds
It had a very strong motor, so didn't need much runway, only for landing.
Some months ago i got bit by the excellent forums feedback about the Parkzone strykerQ and bought one, and it is very versatile, stable, fast and fun. This is the kind of plane that goes very well with a heli fleet, because i can fly it with a lot of wind, when flying with a heli isn't that funny or productive

Ditto on the Stryker. A very fun plane capable of pretty radical moves or very relaxing fun flights. (Flew mine for the first time in 8 months today. Two great flights and soft landings, then got distracted changing elevator trim in the air and clipped a tree branch. Very mild damage.)

[aclysma]

Oh BTW I should have mentioned this in my previous post. I think learning to fly a plane is actually a pretty important thing for the serious heli guy to do. Aside from being fun in its own way, I think flying planes makes a heli pilot smoother, more comfortable with big air, and improves flow between maneuvers. It also makes learning forward inverted flight a lot easier because the stick movements are similar. And it's a lot cheaper to learn forward inverted flight on a foam airplane than a helicopter. I really like the parkzone extra 300. It flies well, it's durable, it's small enough that you can transport in a car with the wings attached, and takes the same batteries as your 400 size heli.

[Luigi_tuga]

Originally Posted by tkranz

Ditto on the Stryker. A very fun plane capable of pretty radical moves or very relaxing fun flights. (Flew mine for the first time in 8 months today. Two great flights and soft landings, then got distracted changing elevator trim in the air and clipped a tree branch. Very mild damage.)

I just love making knife edge circuits at full speed, but i still have to learn those boomerangs.
I'm going to check some tutorial to try it next time
Also love to fly slope or at the beach. For me this plane likeis a swiss army knife

Have fun
And give that Stryker more action

[ronstancil]

Boring huh - don't think so

http://www.break.com/index/17-year-o...-crowd-2317607

[Cailid]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LalfW_BUmqU[/ame]

[Mentalic]

Flew planks for 10 years before I picked up my first heli around 93. I always did get bored with planes easy. I'm often accused on not being able to fly strait because I never do..
On rare days I still fly my 60" Extreem flight edge 540 which runs on 6s heli packs. Heli's are way more fun and challenging to me.